Silicon Valley Lashes Out Over Trump’s Immigration Lawsuit

Hundreds of people marched in support of immigrant rights in downtown San Jose earlier this week. (Photo by Silicon Valley De-Bug, via Facebook)

South Bay leaders are rebuking the U.S. Department of Justice for suing California over three new laws designed to protect undocumented immigrants.

“This lawsuit is a misguided waste of federal resources,” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said in an emailed statement. “Much like the [Trump] administration’s indiscriminate approach to immigration enforcement that has entangled hard-working residents, including the recent deportation of a Bay Area nurse and mother of three, wasting time and energy on politically-driven lawsuits will do nothing to make our communities safer.”

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the suit in a speech Wednesday morning to the California Peace Officers’ Association in Sacramento, where he was greeted by protesters, according to news reports.

“California is using every power it has—and some it doesn’t—to frustrate federal law enforcement,” Sessions told the union. “We are going to fight these irrational, unfair, and unconstitutional policies that have been imposed on you and our federal officers.”

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The lawsuit challenges three so-called sanctuary state laws passed in 2017. One requires ICE to show businesses a judicial warrant before searching employee records. One prohibits local law enforcement from telling ICE about an immigrant’s jail release date or transferring them into federal custody without a judicial warrant—except in cases involving certain violent crimes. Another requires the state to monitor detention centers where non-citizens are held.

The gist of the argument by the Trump administration is that California violated the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution in passing legislation that prevents the federal government from enacting its laws. Though such protections in cities, states and counties unofficially known as “sanctuary jurisdictions” don’t prevent ICE from arresting, detaining and deporting immigrants, agency director Thomas Homan, President Donald Trump and Sessions have blamed them for obstructing federal enforcement.

When Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf alerted her city about impending ICE raids, the Trump administration likened her to a gang lookout and blamed her for preventing as many as 800 arrests. In his speech Wednesday, Sessions lambasted her and other California officials who defend undocumented immigrants.

“How dare you,” he said from the podium. “How dare you needlessly endanger the lives of our law enforcement officers to promote a radical open borders agenda.”

The San Jose-based immigrant advocacy nonprofit SIREN—which stands for Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network—denounced the DOJ lawsuit and slammed the police union that invited Sessions out to California to announce the legal action.

Earlier this week, SIREN organized a march through downtown San Jose to call attention to the Trump administration’s heavy-handed immigration enforcement, which has resulted in numerous arrests in Santa Clara County.

Immigrant communities in the South Bay are still reeling from raids that swept across Northern California this past week and that reportedly led to more than 232 arrests over the course of a few days. The Santa Clara County Rapid Response Network—a hotline that sends volunteers to monitor suspected ICE raids—received about 500 calls from Feb. 25 to 28. At least 10 arrests took place in the South Bay, according to immigrant advocate Rosa De Leon, who works for the charitable nonprofit Sacred Heart Community Services.

Though local leaders have espoused support for immigrants, De Leon said they should have done more to warn people of rumored enforcement sweeps. Indeed, Liccardo was recently criticized for failing to convey enough urgency when he heard reports about the same ICE crackdown that compelled the Oakland mayor to warn her city late last month.

“It is important that they take a stronger stand and adopt strong local policies to protect immigrant families,” DeLeon said in an interview on Wednesday. “During these times, public statements are not enough.”

20 Comments

Wow…I guess My uncle Viktor from Ukraine better be careful on the streets of San Jose! Oh….wait a minute…he got his official notice of citizenship last year. Are they talking about ILLEGAL ALIENS? They never mentioned it….I guess I better warn my uncle…….

“We are a nation of immigrants. But we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.”

we are not a nation of immigrants. we are a nation of citizens who are descended from immigrants and there is a big difference. to be a citizen is something that confers your status as a part of a whole that gives you a sense of belonging along with responsibility as well as respect for the country and those who came before to contribute that which we enjoy.
By labeling everyone as an immigrant is an insult to the service and dedication put forth by those who cherish and value their sense of belonging, it is a part of who they are – it is the fabric of their heritage which comes over time through generations.

If the newly arrived feel slighted at not being included, they shouldn’t. they are simply pissed that they’ve been caught cutting in line ahead of others, many of whom have waited for years to arrive here – legally.
And we can ask – why do you wave the flag of a country you desperately want to leave and demand to be a part of this country? If you are all that great – why is the place you are coming from so awful and if you are all that good – then why not stay in your home country and endeavor to improve it?

the main reason people all over the world want to come here – is because the US is a system that works. This is because of a system of laws and rules put in place to make certain every citizen gets treated well according those rules and laws. By breaking the rules and laws (i.e.,unlawful entry) one degrades the rules and laws and the system breaks down – ultimately ending up the US becoming a more like the places people are trying to leave.

They want to stay here in America but they fly Mexican flags? At what point do we stop questioning the serious dearth of intelligence of some folks? Answer: when we enter the government-run public school system and when we get our news from the mainstream media.

Silicon Valley undocumented immigrants protest Federal laws! So what’s new? Great photo of ignorance at its best with angry folks displaying a flag of the country they despise and fled from.Something tells me these folks are unhappy wherever they are unless there are free handouts and become angry when told the free handouts will end. Wish I could get a day off work to yell and scream at bystanders passing by on their way to work and pose for media photographers. Good luck and best wishes in your quest for whatever the hell your yelling about.

I am personally concerned because ICE is also going after not just some of my neighbors, who arrived here years ago without papers from Mexico and have become interwoven members of our community, donating time and energy to various improvement in this neighborhood, but is now going after people from Vietnam, like a member of my extended family. My former neighbor and then foster son, returned to us after the frontal lobes of his brain matured (human brain achieves full maturity at age 24 to 25), and he realized that he had screwed up (a year in prison at age 19 for possession of stolen property). He is now a graduate of the University of California and a journeyman electrician (with advanced calculus under his belt). The court has issued him a certificate of rehabilitation and he is working and paying taxes. Because he arrived from Vietnam as a refugee in the early 1980s, he was not deportable to Vietnam because Vietnam does not accept returned refugees if they have committed a crime. However, the Trump administration has changed that and is deporting (arresting and holding indefinitely) young Vietnamese like him, even though rehabilitated, and trying to pressure Vietnam to take them back. My now-Godson does not speak Vietnamese. Mr Luong, ICE is now coming after people who look like you.

> However, the Trump administration has changed that and is deporting (arresting and holding indefinitely) young Vietnamese like him, even though rehabilitated, and trying to pressure Vietnam to take them back.

This is a REALLY REALLY lame story.

Bottom line, the Trump administration is NOT DOING ANYTHING to this guy.

Just the usual Soros/Alinsky coached bee ess.

You should be offended that “progressives” think you’re so mindless and stupid that they can wind you up like a talking puppet and get you to spew their fake news.

Put these politicians in jail and let us get back to trying to unravel the mess created by the previous 8 year administration. They are putting the welfare and safety of legal United State citizens, who legally voted them into office, in jeopardy, in favor of criminal invaders.
What idiots would do this?
California democrat politicians, that’s what idiots!

California leaders seem to be implementing an open borders policy. I fail to understand how something like that is legal. Border enforcement is decided by the federal legislature. That said, it appears local leaders prefer lower wages and higher rents for Americans. They also don’t seem to want to screen the criminals out before they get into this country. Cheap labor is probably why so many Republican leaders quietly side with Democrats on not enforcing immigration law. 55% of immigrant families are on some sort of government assistance. If they were honest politicians they would call for a tax increase to pay for the welfare of some of these immigrants. Unfortunately honesty is not part of their job description.

I don’t get it. Crime is high in San Jose. The police can’t keep up. Yet when they arrest someone here illegally they are happy to let them back out instead of sending them away. No wonder crime is off the charts. I guess the mayor doesn’t care about broken car windows and stores getting broken into all the time. UGH

Over the years I have come to know many people who came from other country as students, advisers,
worker and tourism, and some came as criminals that crossed our border illegally. Some crashed planes into the World Trade Center, some worked side by side with me sorting vegetables that went into your freezer. Some of you are driving the cars we built together in Fremont. Most were grateful for the time they spent and money they earned and the places they visited.
But damn those who have come here to waive foreign flags, demand we speak and vote in their language on our ballets, demand welfare benefits we can’t afford our own people and veterans.
If you want to become a citizen here, assimilate or take your flag and go back to where you came from.